1. Field of Invention
The present invention relates to a refrigerator, and more particularly, to a switching device for controlling the supply of power to additional products installed in the refrigerator.
2. Description of the Prior Art
As shown in FIG. 1 in which an external appearance of a general refrigerator is depicted, a storage space which is partitioned into a freezing chamber and a refrigerating chamber is provided in a main body 1 of the refrigerator, and a freezing chamber door 3 and a refrigerating chamber door 5 are pivotally installed at both sides of the main body of the refrigerator, respectively. The freezing chamber door 3 and refrigerating chamber door 5 serve to open and close the freezing and refrigerating chambers defined within the main body 1 of the refrigerator, respectively. Further, the doors 3 and 5 are installed such that they can be pivoted, respectively, by hinge assemblies 13 and 15 provided on a top surface of the main body 1 of the refrigerator.
To enhance a user's convenience and prevent cold air from unnecessarily leaking out, a dispenser 7 is installed at a portion on a front surface of the freezing chamber door 3. The dispenser 7 is installed such that water or ice stored in the refrigerator can be dispensed out without opening the freezing chamber door 3.
Further, an additional product integrated with the refrigerator (hereinafter, referred to as an integrated product) is provided at a portion on a front surface of the refrigerating chamber door 5. As an example of the integrated product, a display unit 9 is shown in FIG. 1. The display unit 9 can provide a function of representing a variety of information on the operation of the refrigerator, a TV receiving function and an Internet function.
A control unit 11 in which circuit components are installed to control the operations of the refrigerator and display unit 9 is provided on the top surface of the main body 1 of the refrigerator. The control unit 11 also performs the control of the display unit 9 as well as the refrigerator by means of the electrical components installed within the control unit 11.
Recently, a tablet computer or display unit is also used as such an integrated product installed to the refrigerator. At this time, each of the additional integrated products should have an additional power switch and be connected to a LAN for operating a computer or to an antenna for watching TV. However, if either the power switch or the connecting portion to the LAN or antenna is provided on a front surface of the integrated product, the external appearance of the refrigerator is not clean.